Dr. Saliha Afridi - Psychology

Dr. Saliha Afridi - Psychology Supporting you on your healing journey, so you can define life on your terms.
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🇦🇪 Dubai, UAE

Do you have a hard time letting go of control in relationships (partner/parenting/work).Erik Erikson wrote that our earl...
20/04/2026

Do you have a hard time letting go of control in relationships (partner/parenting/work).

Erik Erikson wrote that our earliest developmental task is “trust vs. mistrust.” Before language, before memory, the nervous system is already deciding: Is the world responsive? Is it safe to need?

When the world does not feel safe or responsive in those first months of life, control becomes the go-to adaptation. 

From the outside, it may look like rigidity, intensity, or “strong personality.” From the inside, it’s an attempt to restore safety in a world that once felt unpredictable.

So when someone with early mistrust tries to soften control, it can feel terrifying because control has always been protective. 

Beneath the controlling behavior is usually something much younger and much more vulnerable:
* Is it safe to rely?
* Is it safe to reach?
* Will someone come?
* If I express distress, will I be soothed or shamed?

Psychologists distinguish between play (the activity) and playfulness (the psychological orientation).Playfulness is a w...
18/04/2026

Psychologists distinguish between play (the activity) and playfulness (the psychological orientation).

Playfulness is a way of engaging with life lightly and openly, rather than rigidly or fearfully.

It’s the ability to be curious, flexible, and not take every moment as high-stakes-even when things are serious.

Being playful is not someone who is “good at games.”

Its someon who can engage with life as if nothing is ever completely fixed or final.

Even in the most serious moments, they can feel a bit of space around things. A bit of movement. Usually, a bit of humor.

When something goes sideways, their instinct isn’t to brace or resist. It’s more like, “Okay… well, that’s an interesting plot twist. Now what?”

I’ve realized that what people call courage is actually just a different relationship to uncertainty. It’s being a little less rigid and a little more open.

From the outside, it looks like they are being brave or fearless.

From the inside, its a playful curiousity to see what happens next.

This is a confusing kind of crisis.In times like this, it becomes even more important to communicate your experience and...
03/04/2026

This is a confusing kind of crisis.

In times like this, it becomes even more important to communicate your experience and what you need—and to extend empathy and generosity of interpretation toward others.

Country leaders or governments can function as a symbolic secure base when people feel: • Protection: “If something goes...
06/03/2026

Country leaders or governments can function as a symbolic secure base when people feel:
• Protection: “If something goes wrong, the system will protect us.”
• Predictability: rules and responses are consistent
• Containment: crises are managed competently
• Belonging: the leader represents and includes the population

In that sense, the state or leadership system becomes psychologically similar to a secure base.

You are no longer who you werebut not yet who you will be.And learning to stay present in that space,without rushing to ...
20/02/2026

You are no longer who you were
but not yet who you will be.

And learning to stay present in that space,

without rushing to fill it,

is part of the midlife transformation itself.

Because our culture doesn’t recognize this grief, we are left to carry it in silence, as if it were ours alone. People c...
23/10/2025

Because our culture doesn’t recognize this grief, we are left to carry it in silence, as if it were ours alone. People can also feel very guilt acknowledging this pain and longing, bc their parents are alive and they should “just be grateful”...

Emotional Orphanhood can feel like a lifetime of:

* Sitting across from parents, but feeling invisible.

* Deep sense of loneliness in your parents presence - the kind that cuts deeper than being alone.

* Confusion bc you are grieving someone you is alive and well.

* A bottomless longing - always waiting for a moment of fulfilling love that never comes.

And you can be grateful AND acknowledge the pain to yourself or a trusted other.

Acknowledging it can help transform it:

* Naming and honoring the orphan-feeling instead of burying it under guilt, busyness or denial.

* Truly grieving the childhood you never had, the tenderness you longed for, and the presence that was missing. This is so hard.

* Re-parenting yourself daily, not just as an idea but really showing up for yourself. This can be giving yourself sleep, nourishment, protection, gentleness, and encouragement.

* Learning to self-soothe without shaming yourself. Calming your nervous system when panic or abandonment fears rise…

* Choosing relationships that see you and honor you, instead of chasing the familiarity of neglect.

* Building community and chosen family, finding spaces where you feel welcomed and safe.

* Letting go of magical hope that your parents will finally become who you need them to be, and instead allowing your heart to see what they can give. People can only give what they have.

* Turning your grief into depth, so your wound becomes a source of empathy, compassion, and clarity rather than endless hunger. This is the work of alchemy.

* Allow joy and love to enter your life now- even if they arrived later than you hoped. You’re still allowed to receive them. They are still yours to claim.

We live in a time where the word trauma is everywhere, and while that’s helped bring awareness, it’s also blurred lines....
21/10/2025

We live in a time where the word trauma is everywhere, and while that’s helped bring awareness, it’s also blurred lines. 
Not every hurt, frustration, or disappointment is trauma. 

Some experiences overwhelm the nervous system and leave lasting imprints in our mind and body.

Others, while painful, are part of the hard edges of being human… they stretch us, build tolerance, and can even deepen us.

In the early stages, turning inward and being self-oriented is essential. You need boundaries, rest, self-awareness, and...
15/10/2025

In the early stages, turning inward and being self-oriented is essential. You need boundaries, rest, self-awareness, and protection. That’s the “containment phase” of healing.

But over time, the goal is reconnection… with life, people, purpose, and the world.
You are more connected, not more defended. 

Real healing allows for porousness again…. the ability to be changed by love, life, and relationship.

In the early stages, turning inward and being self-oriented is essential. You need boundaries, rest, self-awareness, and...
15/10/2025

In the early stages, turning inward and being self-oriented is essential. You need boundaries, rest, self-awareness, and protection. That’s the “containment phase” of healing.

But over time, the goal is reconnection… with life, people, purpose, and the world.
You are more connected, not more defended. 

Real healing allows for porousness again…. the ability to be changed by love, life, and relationship.

Motherhood is where the yes and no, stay and go, hold on and let go live together. Motherhood is bootcamp for living wit...
14/10/2025

Motherhood is where the yes and no, stay and go, hold on and let go live together.

Motherhood is bootcamp for living with paradox.
Nothing has stretched me more than learning to live the tension of opposites.

It’s a thousand contradictions that break your heart wide open as you learn to live both.

It cannot be any other way… it is archetypal, a pattern woven into the life of every human being’s life and it is this: ...
13/10/2025

It cannot be any other way… it is archetypal, a pattern woven into the life of every human being’s life and it is this: 

*At some point, each of us will arrive at a stretch of the journey where we must walk alone.*

Don’t worry you won’t walk alone the whole journey–we always have helpers along the way- that is also archetypal-….but its one particular stretch… that must be walked alone. 

Think back through your own life. Can you think of the times when the usual supports -friends, family, mentors- were not there for a period. When you found yourself alone, face-to-face with your own soul, unsure where to turn next.

That was when you were being initiated. 

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